Chris Low: The Head Ball Coach and his wife, Jerri, plan on staying in the Columbia area even when he’s done coaching.

“People always ask where I’m going to live when my coaching days are over,” said Spurrier, who owns a vacation home in Crescent Beach, Fla. “Usually, your last stop is where you end up, if your last stop is successful. Bobby Stoops wants to be in Norman.

“Our plan is to live here, at least between here and Crescent Beach. Every time I go through Gainesville, I don’t know anybody anymore. I’ve got a few pals there, but not that many. This is a good place to live. It really is.”

And for the record, Spurrier plans on resigning and not retiring.

Now, for those South Carolina fans who get sweaty palms when Spurrier even broaches the subject of his retirement (oops, his resignation), relax.

He’s having way too much fun -- and success -- to even think about walking away right now, and he feels and looks a lot closer to 49 than his actual age of 69. He misses a day of working out about as often as he concedes a 3-foot putt, which is never.

A devout family guy, Spurrier’s two sons, Steve Jr., and Scott, are both working under him on the South Carolina coaching staff, and the Gamecocks are enjoying the kind of unprecedented run that few others in college football have been able to rival the past three years.

Don’t tell Spurrier he’s exceeded expectations.

“No, we’ll exceed them when we win the SEC,” Spurrier said. “That’s still the goal, to push for that. We’ve made some really good progress, on the field and financially. When I got here, we’d had one person to give a million dollars to athletics, and her name is on the stadium, Mrs. [Martha] Williams-Brice, and that was in 1972.

“Since then, we’ve found 10 or 11 wealthy people who’ve given over a million dollars. We were way behind financially to most of the schools in the SEC and are still trying to catch up. But we’ve been able to get the facilities upgraded, and once we did that, we were able to sign our top in-state kids. That’s been huge.”

DESTIN, Florida - It hasn't been the greatest year for SEC football coaches. Their long-deserved rep as the biggest, baddest hombres in the sport has taken a serious hit.

Their latest sensation, Gus Malzahn, lost a big lead and then lost a late lead to become the first coach in the league to lose the BCS National Championship Game to someone from outside the league.

Their standard bearer, Nick Saban, joined a newcomer in Bret Bielema to try to add a new rule behind a lot of people's backs to help their defenses keep up, and their efforts at a little gamesmanship failed miserably.

Most of them are glad the league didn't add another conference game and won't forbid them from beating up on non-conference opponents from the FCS.

They don't like the idea of an Aug. 1 early signing date because it would speed up the recruiting calendar even though some of them don't mind offering scholarships to grade-schoolers.

Maybe worst of all, some of them are crying like schoolgirls because coaches from other leagues are taking advantage of a recruiting loophole to invade their territory. They've run to their daddy and asked Commissioner Mike Slive to get those mean old outsiders off their playground.

Saban's newly approved contract calls for $6.5 million in base salary, an annual $400,000 completion bonus and the university annually contributing $100,000 to a general scholarship fund in his name.

That totals $7 million, and doesn't even count performance bonuses and getting his life insurance upped from $5 million to $6 million. Saban also got his usual caveat of having no buyout if he leaves for another coaching job.

When you throw in the raises Alabama's full-time assistants received for a collective annual salaries now totaling $5.2 million (they also got memberships to a Tuscaloosa yacht club), and then add Saban's $7 mil, the Crimson Tide spends $12.2 million per year in football salaries.

But if there is any doubt Alabama is getting a return on its coaching salaries investment...

In Malzahn's initial deal, the buyout was $500,000 for each year remaining on the deal

Under the terms of the new deal, that buyout rises to $2,237,500 per year for each year remaining on Malzahn's contract, payable in monthly installments, a rise of $1,737,500 per year.

Malzahn's buyout obligations also changed in the new deal.

In the first deal Malzahn signed after becoming coach, he would have owed Auburn $500,000 per year for the remaining term of his agreement.

Auburn and Malzahn put an interesting change into his second contract.

If Malzahn leaves Auburn before the end of his six-year deal, the head coach owes the university the sum total of the compensation Auburn pays to any assistant coaches who don't follow Malzahn to his new job or aren't retained by Auburn after a new coach is hired.

It happened with Tommy Tuberville, who resigned under pressure in 2008. Auburn had to pay him $5.1 million not to coach.

It happened with Gene Chizik, who was fired in 2012. Auburn is still paying him the balance of the $7.5 million it’s contractually obligated to pay him not to coach.

Will Auburn never learn?

Maybe Malzahn, beyond his unique and wildly effective offensive system, is smart enough and hungry enough to break the mold of the last four decades at Auburn. Clearly that’s what the administration is banking on.

But was it necessary to bet so much money so soon on that possibility?

The "buyout" is language for "Hush" money when it comes to all things auburn. Gus knows all of the inner-workings of Pat Dye's machine.

Reflecting back on Jay Jacobs statment anbout Wingnuts departure several years ago he said "It was the right thing to do."

If a coach leaves of his own choosing, what school would give him a buyout if it wasn't contractually obligated to? (Remember that he had just lost to Alabama 36-0 a day or two before.) I can only think of one.......

Sylvester Croom is excited about the upcoming season as running backs coach with the Tennessee Titans, has no regrets about his time at Mississippi State and remains loyal to his alma mater in Tuscaloosa.

"My day has passed," Croom explained. "I feel like I would get one shot, and I got my one shot. I'm enjoying what I am doing right now."

The one chance, of course, was in 2004 when Croom became the first African-American head coach in the SEC.

Croom compiled a 21-38 record in five years at Mississippi State, earning upsets over Florida, Alabama and Auburn during his career. He was named SEC Coach of the Year in 2007. However, one day after his Bulldogs lost to Ole Miss 45-0, he was asked to resign.

"I really enjoyed it," Croom said of his time in Starkville. "We were on schedule, in my mind, and what I planned to do when I got there and the way we went about doing things.

"The last class was the one we felt was going to put us over the hump. We were on track, we felt, to do some things. We regret that we didn't get a chance to finish that."

He emphasized he had no regrets, and understood the significance of his hiring in Starkville...

AL.com sports @aldotcomSports · 3hSteve Spurrier suggests Alabama would be just as good if Nick Saban worked fewer hours http://ow.ly/yjrhW

Would know.

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Admits he "can't grind on football 11 months a year maybe the way some of these coaches do."

Namely, Nick Saban.

I told Nick Saban one time, I said, 'Nick, you don't have to stay there until midnight and your teams would be just as good and win just as many,' " Spurrier said. "He said, 'If I could do it the way you do it, I would, but I don't feel comfortable unless I try to cover every base, every angle, be totally prepared.' I said, 'Well, that's probably why you do it.' When I come out there, I feel comfortable we are ready to play. We have our game plan in, going to call this, call that and so forth. Everybody is different as far as when they feel they are totally prepared."

Spurrier wondered if Saban has "maxed out potentially as well as he could."

"How many SECs has (Saban) won there in eight years? He's won two. He's won three nationals, but he's only won two SECs in eight years. Now, if you had the No. 1 recruiting class every year and so forth, I don't know if he has maxed out potentially as well as he could."

Spurrier, of course, has a history of ribbing his fellow SEC coaches, including Saban...

AL.com's Kevin Scarbinsky wrote of Spurrier that "the better his teams, the sharper his tongue."

"... him jabbing Saban in June just increases the likelihood that they’ll face off in the SEC Championship Game in December for the first time. It’s a summit meeting that has to happen for so many reasons. It would be the perfect opportunity for Spurrier to put up or shut up about Saban once and for all."

“This will be the 14th time I’ve coached at Neyland Stadium. I’ve coached there more than some of their head coaches.” – In his weekly news conference prior to the 2013 game against Tennessee

“I started thinking, amazingly when we play these guys from Clemson, the script follows the same thing. … They’re a good team but continue to not play very well when they play us for some reason.” – After beating Clemson for a fifth straight time in 2013

“Chief Scott said there was a robbery and somebody called and said it looked like the head ball coach at South Carolina. I had to tell him I didn’t leave practice all day today, and he said it was OK. … It’s not embarrassing to be handcuffed. That’s what I’m trying to say.” – After staging a post- practice scene in which he had police chief Randy Scott place him in handcuffs following an incident in which then-signee Jadeveon Clowney was briefly detained in what police later called a case of mistaken identity

“Most of our guys have never been to Death Valley. That is the Death Valley, isn’t it? Or is there another one? There’s two of them. That’s right, there’s two Death Valleys. Was LSU the first one or the second one? They were first? Oh, OK.” – Prior to a 2012 trip to LSU and another jab at Clemson

"We do lead college football in three-and-outs," Miles said Wednesday afternoon during day three of the Southeastern Conference media days. "We would like to have those guys back. I keep approaching the NFL on an opportunity for us to draft back some of our players that they take. We would love to have Patrick Peterson back, but there is a responsibility that the coaching staff has to see a void that will potentially occur, and we have to recruit to that void.

"We have to make sure that our style of recruiting is the style that we get an athlete that has a want to be something special and then steps in there as a true freshman. Although not optimal, it's something we've done."

Is UGA really the third-best job in college football? (Clay Travis of FoxSports thinks so. I respectfully disagree.) http://on-myajc.com/UQTCN4

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In a post for Fox Sports, Clay Travis of Outkick The Coverage has rated the 25 best coaching jobs in college football. He has Florida No. 1, Texas No. 2 and Georgia No. 3. Ohio State is No. 5, Alabama No. 6 and LSU No. 7.

Travis’ methodology: It’s better to be based in the South — “Increasingly, college football is a game played in the sunshine,” he avers — and most big-name recruits either hail from or want to move to the South. Which doesn’t explain why Florida State ranks No. 12, especially seeing as how Florida State graced four BCS title games, the same number as Florida.

The lofty assessment of Georgia can be explained in two words — recruiting base.

With that success, how much longer can Texas A&M keep Sumlin? There will be more phone calls from the NFL going forward.

“I’d consider it, maybe sometime, but not any time soon,” Sumlin said. “I just got here. I’ve still got a lot of things to try to accomplish in college football.

“Most people, whatever you do, eventually want to be at the top of that field. That’s just natural. You want to compete — whether it’s your job or livelihood. You want to be the best at whatever you’re doing, to be at a level where you can say you competed at the top.

“At this stage of my career, that’s where I’m at — college football and the SEC … particularly the SEC West. It’s about as high as you can get without coaching in the NFL.”

Sumlin is in no rush to leave — not with a $5 million buyout through the 2016 season if he were to depart without cause...

“We developed a relationship that goes very deep and we enjoy talking football,” Fulmer said. “This seemed like a natural way to work together again.”

The show will air on Saturdays in Nashville (104.5-FM)…

“I want fans to walk away thinking ‘I learned something’ or ‘I never thought of it like that,’’’ Mathews said. “We will get heavy into the why football coaches make the decisions they do, and look very closely at the players a coaching staff would need to prepare for on that week’s opponent.”

Coach Fulmer would also be included on a countdown of SEC coaches considered "untouchable" who were let go in the end.

During the replay of the Jan. 1999 National Championship game, Keith Jackson noted that Fulmer was 67-11 coming into the game (43-7 in SEC games).

Kentucky’s first game under Mumme in 1997, against state rival Louisville, feels like the first tremor of an earthquake. Couch threw for 398 yards and four touchdowns in a 38-24 win. “Everyone — the players, the fans, the coaches — was looking around after I threw my first touchdown like, ‘Oh my god, this is awesome,’” Couch says. Three weeks later at Indiana, Couch tied an SEC single-game record with seven touchdown passes. He threw for 355 yards in an overtime victory against Alabama, the first time Kentucky had beaten the Crimson Tide since 1922. “Early on, it was easy,” Mumme says. “No one knew how to defend it.”